Reflections on Hybridity as an Analytical Lens on State Formation: The Case of Solomon Islands

In this chapter we draw on a case study of rural Solomon Islands to reflect critically on the value of the concept of ‘hybridity’ in understanding processes of social, economic and political change underway in this small but socially complex archipelagic Pacific island nation. In foregrounding these processes of change, we draw attention in particular to the inherent tension between contemporary understandings of statebuilding, on one hand, and state formation, on the other.1 The former, which tend to dominate policy discussions and some areas of academic debate, are often framed in terms of linear, technical and largely ahistorical projects, with a significant focus on the role of international actors. The latter has its antecedents in historical studies of the emergence of the postWestphalian state and generally views state formation as a predominantly organic, contingent and highly contested process. Our analysis of change in Solomon Islands adopts a state formation lens and in this chapter we specifically ask what the concept of hybridity might contribute to our understanding of this process.